Tiger, have a good trip visiting your daughter next week. Just an update. There may be a bit of paranoia upon your arrival due to recent discovery of UK variant in Shanghai just recently. So foreigners holding a UK passport like yourself may face extra scrutiny in coming days. The mini-outbreak in Dali, Yunnan just days ago will also add to their
As 2020 comes to a close, a good piece of Yunnan news we may look forward to for next month. The new highway linking Lijiang and Shangri-la is slated to open, cutting travel time by at least half, to around 1.5 hours by car.
I just want to share with everyone an useful resource for on-call home furniture/appliance installations in Kunming and for most first to third tier cities in China. The service provided is hassle-free, and more affordable than trying to procure a nearby worker (more respectfully called "shifu") on your own. Around 70 rmb for most home installation needs mentioned below.
The phone app is called Lubandaojia (鲁班到家).
First, you submit your home need. Whether to install a newly bought furniture like sofa or bed, toilet, sink, lighting fixtures, ceiling laundry rack, curtains, wallpapers, doors, door locks, water heater, misc. appliances, you name it... a handyman near you who specializes in performing your requested task can choose to pickup your order. In minutes, or at scheduled date/time, they would arrive at your residence to complete the task for ~CNY70. Sort of like Didi (or Uber equivalent) transportation services, but for home services.
I recently used the app for finding a handyman to install a ceiling fan bought on TMall for a discount. A handyman (and his wife) came over and brought their own heavy-duty concrete drilling tools and stretchable ladder. Assembled the ceiling fan light fixture itself and installed it to the ceiling. All for 70 bucks.
This service is useful for anyone who bought lower cost furniture/appliance online which doesn't come with same-city installations. The installation option would cost much more through TMall, Taobao, and JD sellers than from this independent app.
FYI, many of these installers who pick up orders on Lubandaojia app are employees of decoration companies contracted by land developers, who seek to make a few bucks on the side via this service portal.
Besides the smartphone app, Lubandaojia also has an official website:
Bloomberg published a poignant piece underscoring the dire need for China's economic engine to restore.
For us Kunmingers, the underlying difficulties for our locally or foreign owned restaurants/bars/cafes and small retail businesses due to depleting cash.
Restoring consumer confidence and spending is now of paramount importance as "Half of Chinese Retailers Risk Collapse Within Six Months... 60% unable to cover labor and rental costs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and company reports covering 50 listed firms. Among jewelry and apparel companies, almost half don’t have the cash to last the six months unless demand rebounds sharply, the data show..."
After all, the once destroyer of empires has in a few days brought entire EU down to their knees, after knocking out the Middle Kingdom for the count... and now they're going after the most powerful military nation in the history of warfare.
Just Hot Jan, I need to inform you that Just Hot is the subsidiary of JiaHua Bakeries. Although TKP's Just Hot targets higher-end market segments, the apple doesn't fall from its tree... it's no wonder their ginormous croissants can't compare with the croissant quality of their direct competitor, Bon Appétit, which is situated not far from them on the same B1 level.
Thank you with sincerity for doing your part in being their beacon of light now, and glimmer of hope for their future.
Touching base on the challenges of recruiting credentialed teachers to rural outskirts.
Though some may scoff at technology and change from traditional pedagogy/curriculum. Perhaps the anecdote in that domain lies somewhere in the advent synergy of 5G, A.I, and satellite internet....
to bring real-time machine learning based academia to backwater classrooms in virtual form. Reaching not just hundreds of millions of rural children in China. But bridging education access gap to those less fortunate families in the Middle East, India/Pakistan, South East Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world.
Perhaps a ground-up, global multinational cooperation effort with coalition of governments' subsidies to incentivize private innovations need to occur to make this a reality.
No cloudy, Starbucks aren't enough to give rural children the opportunities for a brighter future.
Building more schools and hiring a legion of well-trained teachers to foster a better education system may help.
The government needs to allocate more funds to building and revamping these countryside schools.
And where may local governments get that money outside Beijing?
Perhaps by selling or leasing prime real estate locations at exorbitant prices to foreign investors, such Hang Lung Properties.
By permitting these deep-pocketed developers to build skyscrapers at sought-after locations, value of land further increases, hence their selling/leasing prices resulting in higher revenues (inc. corporate taxes from ensuing business & offices) for funding public projects such as said public education.
This is where the corporate buzzwords you so despise come into play. Accountability, transparency, and oversight. Without which, corrupt-prone local officials may end up pocketing the hongbaos from developers to be transferred to their private Swiss bank accounts used by their own privileged children studying aboard.
With accountability, transparency, and oversight... hundreds of billions in funds are more than enough to provide poverty stricken children the first steps in the right path to a brighter future.
Costco officially opened in Shanghai today. First store in China.
If and when this hypermarket chain opens in Kunming, the usual complainers would instead be raving in joy, and overlooking how such "soulless" investment resources and land allocation would be better served alleviating poverty.
Sometimes it comes down to whether new projects tailor or serve one's own needs.
Video: Zen and the art of patisserie with chef Igor Nataf
Posted byJust Hot Jan, I need to inform you that Just Hot is the subsidiary of JiaHua Bakeries. Although TKP's Just Hot targets higher-end market segments, the apple doesn't fall from its tree... it's no wonder their ginormous croissants can't compare with the croissant quality of their direct competitor, Bon Appétit, which is situated not far from them on the same B1 level.
Property conglomerate Hang Lung opens Spring City 66, Kunming's tallest building
Posted byThank you with sincerity for doing your part in being their beacon of light now, and glimmer of hope for their future.
Touching base on the challenges of recruiting credentialed teachers to rural outskirts.
Though some may scoff at technology and change from traditional pedagogy/curriculum. Perhaps the anecdote in that domain lies somewhere in the advent synergy of 5G, A.I, and satellite internet....
to bring real-time machine learning based academia to backwater classrooms in virtual form. Reaching not just hundreds of millions of rural children in China. But bridging education access gap to those less fortunate families in the Middle East, India/Pakistan, South East Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world.
Perhaps a ground-up, global multinational cooperation effort with coalition of governments' subsidies to incentivize private innovations need to occur to make this a reality.
Property conglomerate Hang Lung opens Spring City 66, Kunming's tallest building
Posted byNo cloudy, Starbucks aren't enough to give rural children the opportunities for a brighter future.
Building more schools and hiring a legion of well-trained teachers to foster a better education system may help.
The government needs to allocate more funds to building and revamping these countryside schools.
And where may local governments get that money outside Beijing?
Perhaps by selling or leasing prime real estate locations at exorbitant prices to foreign investors, such Hang Lung Properties.
By permitting these deep-pocketed developers to build skyscrapers at sought-after locations, value of land further increases, hence their selling/leasing prices resulting in higher revenues (inc. corporate taxes from ensuing business & offices) for funding public projects such as said public education.
This is where the corporate buzzwords you so despise come into play. Accountability, transparency, and oversight. Without which, corrupt-prone local officials may end up pocketing the hongbaos from developers to be transferred to their private Swiss bank accounts used by their own privileged children studying aboard.
With accountability, transparency, and oversight... hundreds of billions in funds are more than enough to provide poverty stricken children the first steps in the right path to a brighter future.
Property conglomerate Hang Lung opens Spring City 66, Kunming's tallest building
Posted byCostco officially opened in Shanghai today. First store in China.
If and when this hypermarket chain opens in Kunming, the usual complainers would instead be raving in joy, and overlooking how such "soulless" investment resources and land allocation would be better served alleviating poverty.
Sometimes it comes down to whether new projects tailor or serve one's own needs.
Yang Liping unveils Tibetan-inspired production
Posted byGood catch cloudtrapezer. My bad for adding extra "g"...
yet not Han Dynasty Peter pointed out as the video at the 1:44 mark said,
"This was the historic conflict between the Chu and Han Kingdoms during the Qin dynasty."
Screenshot @1:44 here:
imgur.com/BEb0r0x